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Cape Town - Volkswagen's (VW's) stylish and sophisticated new Polo is just the start of the Wolfsburg company's assault on the local and international market.
With the Porsche takeover saga behind it and fresh from buying a stake in Suzuki, VW is on track to become the number one car company in South Africa and globally.
The new hatch is important for Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) in many ways. Speaking at the launch of the 2010 Polo - the first in a series of new vehicles the company will bring to the country - sales and marketing chief Mike Glendinning admitted as much.
"The Polo accounts for a third of our market share in South Africa and it's usually customers' first encounter with the brand."
About 330 000 Polos, including the sedan version, can be found on SA roads and it commands a 22% market share in the class and 6.5% overall.
Glendinning expects 17 500 Polos to find South African buyers in 2010, but adds this is a conservative estimate. VWSA expects the overall market in SA to improve by single digits from the dismal 260 000 cars sold in 2009.
WSA will introduce a raft of new models this year, including an entry-level replacement for the discontinued CitiGolf and the Amarok.
The highly anticipated Amarok is the first bakkie the German firm has produced. One-tonners are an important segment in the country and Toyota's Hilux was the best-selling vehicle in SA last year and in previous years.
Export drive
Apart from keeping the hatch number one in its segment (VW calls it the A0 or supermini segment, where it competes with the Toyota Yaris and Honda Jazz among others), the new Polo is also the cornerstone of VWSA's export drive.
The Uitenhage plant - which has been completely overhauled at a cost of about R3bn to produce the hatch - delivered 19 000 vehicles to overseas markets in 2009.
This will shoot up to 55 000 this year. The minimum requirement for government support under its Automotive Production Development Programme is for a production run of not less than 50 000 of a single platform. VWSA will also export the Polo's locally produced petrol engines.
As part of the export programme, R30m has been spent on new technical academies and six new suppliers have been attracted to a facility alongside the VW plant.
Says David Powells, VWSA MD and president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa): "Pushing up local content is central to the export programme.
"We are nearing the goal of 70% local content." Uitenhage is the sole global supplier of right-hand drive five-door Polos to markets such as Singapore, Japan and the UK.
Globally, VW is on course to beat Toyota as the world's biggest manufacturer of motor vehicles.
While global sales slid from 60 million to 55 million units last year, VW managed to increase its share through selling 100 000 more vehicles in 2009 at 6.3 million.
The VW brand accounted for 3.9 million of the total. VW also owns Audi, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini and other brands and recently inked a deal with Suzuki to obtain 20% of the small car specialist.
- Fin24.com
